The Laguna Beach City Manager’s office said Monday that the county assessor’s property tax assessments for fiscal year 2010-11 revealed that Laguna Beach had the second highest increase in Assessed Valuation in the county. The positive 1.89% increase means the city will receive about $380,000 more income than the zero percent increase in the adopted budget.

The city’s budget had allocated $1.2 million from the reserve Recession Smoothing Account. The increase reduced that amount to $820,000.

Fountain Valley, with a 3.13% gain, was the only city in OC with a higher positive increase. Newport Beach had a .27% gain. The other LB neighboring cities, Irvine, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Woods, Laguna Hills, Lake Forest and Dana Point, were among the 19 with a negative assessed valuation.

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On tonight’s City Council meeting agenda

Two City Council agenda items scheduled for July 20 that may garner citywide interest.

Item 18. Financial Summary and Closeout of Bluebird Landslide Fund

The final numbers for the costs paid by the city to repair and rebuild the area destroyed in the Bluebird Canyon landslide of June 1, 2005 have been tallied at $36,802,042. Last month the California Emergency Management Agency notified the city that the amount of reimbursement approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency would be $33,926,762 ($24.9 from FEMA and $9 million from the state).

Those numbers equate to a shortfall of $2,497,429, which the city is obligated to pay.

In Nov of ’05, the voters of Laguna Beach passed Measure A, a 1/2 cent sales tax levy to create a Disaster Contingency Fund to pay for any costs of Bluebird not reimbursed by FEMA and/or future natural disasters. The Council will be asked to b) approve the transfer of $2,497,428 to the Bluebird Landslide Fund to balance and close it.

FEMA made a determination that the landslide was the result of heavy winter rains and therefore eligible for disaster relief funds.

Item 22. Pedestrian Access to the Top of The World Fire Road

Councilmember Jane Egly is asking the City Manager and City Attorney to look into the potential of providing a walking and cycling access to the fire road from Old Top of the World that would be available to everyone. The current access is essentially unusable by many residents. The access from the Arch Beach Heights end of the fire road is, according to the agenda bill, “excellent”.

The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers. It is telecast live on Cox Channel 30 and is available by streaming on the City’s website as are the Council’s entire agenda and complete bills – visit:

Laguna Beach City Manager Ken Frank issues a few notes and updates for the benefit of the City Council on Fridays each week. The July 16 updates follow.

Summer Meeting Schedule – Just a reminder that the City Council modified its meetings for the summer as follows:

July 20

August 17

August 31

September 21

Farmers Market Expansion – Local vendors will join the weekly Orange County Farm Bureau Farmers Market starting [July 17]. The added area is called “Laguna Lane” and is adjacent to the northwest corner of the current market with space for 6 additional local vendors.

Business Task Force – This week, the City staff met with members of the Business Task Force, including Councilmembers Iseman and Pearson. We discussed the recommendations, which were approved by the City Council and the current status of implementing each recommendation.

Downtown Sidewalk Washing – From May through September, downtown sidewalks are pressure washed monthly by the City’s contractor. The July washing will begin next week. The process normally takes two weeks because the work can only be done during early hours before the sidewalks fill with pedestrians. During the fall and winter months the washing is done about every other month, depending upon rain. Each washing costs $10,000, and the annual program cost is $90,000.

Energy Efficiency Grant Approved – Last December the City submitted an application for a State Energy Efficiency block grant. The final approval and grant agreement was received this week. The grant amount of $131,000 was determined by a population based formula. The grant will be used to replace the City Hall air conditioning units with high efficiency units and to replace lighting at several City facilities with energy efficient lighting. The program also includes lighting motion sensors throughout City Hall.

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City of Laguna Beach

Key Accomplishments

July 1, 2009 – June 30, 2010

••••

Community Development

Obtained Coastal Commission certification for amendments to the South Laguna Village Zone, parking code changes and sign ordinance amendments.

Extended development entitlements by 12 months to help with the financial crisis.

Completed a multi-year effort to scan old paper reports into the computer system.

Created a civilian supervisor position to oversee Parking and Animal Services.

Miscellaneous

Afforded residents the option of purchasing parking permits online.

Created an entirely new City website with online access to meetings of the City Council, Planning Commission and Design Review Board.

Participated in the Statewide process to establish a marine preserve off the Laguna Beach coastline.

Entered into a new lease with the Friends of Hortense Miller Garden.

Accepted the donation of 90 acres of open space on the ridgeline above South Laguna.

Acquired the Verizon property on Laguna Canyon Road.

Purchased the Bunn parcel at the end of Canyon Acres for open space.

Modified the lease with Laguna Beach Seniors to pay for their share of utilities and cleaning in exchange for greater City access to space in the evenings.

Opened an alternative sleeping location on Laguna Canyon Road, which immediately eliminated encampments in beaches and parks.

Adopted several ordinances to ensure that beaches and parks are used as intended, including restrictions on: the storage of personal belongings, camping and sleeping, loitering, traversing bluffs and landscaping, and the use of beaches and parks between 1:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m.

Participated successfully in the process to preserve our community hospital as a nonprofit entity with an acute care facility and emergency room under the ownership of Mission Hospital.

Initiated a free, all day parking lot, ten months of the year for downtown employees and visitors.

Purchased the Hopkins Trust parcels on Bluebird Canyon Drive for open space.

Laguna Beach City Manager Ken Frank issues a few notes and updates for the benefit of the City Council on Fridays each week. The July 9 updates follow.

Traffic Alerts – The City is trying out a new service to inform the community via email when there are significant traffic delays on highways or heavily traveled streets due to accidents or major construction projects. To access the service, users can login to: http://www.lagunabeachcity.net/services/traffic_alerts.asp and enter their email address. Users can also decide to stop receiving the messages at any time by logging in and opting out of the service.

No No Left Turn Sign – At our request, Caltrans has removed the “No Turn” sign on Broadway in front of the pink commercial center between Ocean and Broadway. Instead, they installed a No U-Turn sign closer to Beach. This will eliminate one of the problems after the implementation of the one way traffic on Cliff.

Cottage Visitors – We have had some visitors get through the fences for the three cottages being stored temporarily at Big Bend. One of the homes appears to have been entered. We are resealing the buildings.

Two New Recreation Supervisors – Kristin Bruhagier has worked as a part-time Marine Safety Senior Lifeguard Supervisor since 2005. She has a Bachelors degree from UC Irvine and a Masters degree from New York University (NYU). Kristin was a NCAA swimmer while attending UCI and she also was swim coach for youth swim and water polo teams. Kristin lives in Huntington Beach. Tom Toman has been with the City since 2006 as a Public Works Technician and Intern where he has assisted with summer festival transit, nuisance abatement, service requests and other Public Works programs. Tom was a NCAA basketball player at Florida Southern University and has a Bachelors degree from Saint Louis University. Tom lives in Laguna Beach.